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Where are globular clusters found in the Milky Way Galaxy?
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Star cluster
Centre of star cluster 47 Tucanae (NGC 104), showing the colours of various stars.
Most of the brightest stars are older yellow stars, but a few young blue stars are also visible. This picture is a composite of three images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
In the Milky Way Galaxy, globular clusters are arranged in a nearly spherical halo that surrounds the galaxy.12
While they are distributed throughout this halo, their spatial arrangement is not uniform:
- Galactic Center: There is a heavy concentration of globular clusters toward the galactic center. About one-third of these clusters are found clustered around the center, particularly within the Sagittarius–Scorpius star fields.12
- Galactic Plane: There are relatively few globular clusters located toward the galactic plane.12
- Outer Fringes: Metal-poor clusters are typically found in the halo or the outer fringes of the galaxy.3
Because these clusters formed before the material of the galaxy flattened into its current thin disk, they occupy a distinct, spherical distribution that contrasts with the younger objects found within the galactic plane.12